Figurative language includes many different techniques to make writing unique and memorable. These techniques help the reader better connect to what a writer or poet is saying. Without figurative language, reading would not be nearly as pleasurable. In this lesson we will break down some of the figurative language in Robert Frost's famous poem 'The Road Not Taken.'
Metaphor
A metaphor is an implicitly made comparison between two seemingly unlike things. Metaphor is probably this poem's most obvious example of figurative language. In fact, the metaphor applies throughout the entire poem, which makes it an extended metaphor if you're being picky about it. The road in the poem is a metaphor for life and the path we take through it. The fork in the road is a metaphor for the choices we must make as we navigate our path.
Within the larger extended metaphor are smaller ones. For example, in lines 4-5, the road becomes a metaphor for the future:
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
The speaker looks down the path and can only see so far, in the same way that we can't see the consequences of our choices in the future. In line 6, the speaker suddenly decides to take the path he has not been examining:
Then took the other, as just as fair,
This can be seen as a metaphor for making a spur-of-the moment decision in life. Finally, in lines 13-15, the speaker realizes he will never be able to come back to the place where the two roads split:
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
We can read this as a metaphor for life-changing decisions that forever alter our path.
Symbolism
Symbolism is figurative language that infuses literal things with symbolic meaning. In 'The Road Not Taken,' many of the examples of metaphor are also symbols. The road is a symbol for the journey of life. The fork in the road is symbolic of major life choices. The fact that this poem is set in autumn, indicated by the fact that the leaves are yellow, can also be seen as a symbol. Autumn often symbolizes our later years, and in this case the symbolism helps us envision the speaker as an older person who has spent many years on the road of life.
